Blog 3
Watching Psycho Pass was definitely an interesting experience and probably not a show I would have watched outside of this class. That is not to say though, that I did not enjoy it. In Psycho Pass Season one it portrayed a world to me that felt both clean and cold. The city was booming, but under the surface it was hurting. This world needs a hidden group of workers to keep it running. I saw it in small scenes. I saw robots that served coffee. I saw latent criminals that swept blood. I saw lab assistants that cleaned broken glass. They all faded into the background. They all did the work that no one thanked them for.
In episode one I watched the church cleaners line up with brooms. They moved in silence. In episode two I saw robots carry coffee cups on tiny trays. They never spoke. They are tools. In episode five the lab cleaners wore white coats. They swept broken glass under the harsh lights. In episode seventeen I saw latents scrub a train station floor. They bent low under the station lights. Each scene showed the invisible hands that keep the city in perfect order.
In Japan we often hear about social order and group harmony. Psycho Pass shows how that can feel like a cage. People live under the eyes of the Sybil System. Their feelings and moods are watched. Yet the people who do the work are ignored. This idea feels global. It makes me think of people who work in real life. They care for our children. They clean our offices. They fix our roads. Many go unseen.
From what I have seen from history, civilations mainly flourish when the working class are subjugated and enslaved, thats kind of how most of our early societies were built. I think we still have that kind of system in place just under a new moniker of modern slavery.
Our class readings on power and class and on the gaze of authority felt somewhat relevant to the show. The Sybil System is a final watcher. The workers are its forgotten servants.
